1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a premix for sponge cakes, steamed bread, etc., that can be cooked easily at home, particularly for that using a microwave oven, resulting in a cooked cake having an excellent texture and not shrinking.
2. Description of the Related Art
Home cooking of sponge cakes and steamed bread is popular, and for this, a sponge cake premix aimed at microwave ovens is commercially available.
The main ingredients of a sponge cake premix includes flour, saccharides, raising agents, and additional ingredients of sugar, powdered milk, seasonings, oil, fat, food colorings, emulsifying agents, and aromas. Water is added to the above ingredients, which are then kneaded together, formed into a mass, and baked in an oven to produce the cake.
However, the texture and volume of conventionally-made sponge cakes have the tendency to be less than satisfactory. To be more specific, when baked in a microwave oven, they exhibited a gummy viscoelasticity and had a hard texture. After baking, the cakes took on a moist-free texture when cool, i.e., the moist is somewhat removed from the cakes, and found to be somewhat different from the melt-in-the-mouth qualities expected from a sponge cake.
Further, it was difficult to obtain a light and soft voluminous feel for a cake baked in these fashion. Bearing this is mind, a satisfactory sponge cake premix has yet to be developed.
The reason for the unsatisfactory texture and voluminous feel of the sponge cake is said to reside mainly in the protein denaturation of gluten of the raw material flour. To be more specific, in a conventional sponge cake premix using flour as the raw material, protein denaturation is considered to take place in the gluten contained in the premix, so as to cause the cooked sponge cake to exhibit a hard texture tinged with a gum-like viscoelasticity. As a measure for overcoming the difficulty, proposed is a method of using flour low in protein content (see Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 7-97950). Also proposed is a method of using heat-treated flour (see Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 8-159). Further, various proposals have been made including a method of adding an oil and fat, an emulsifying agent and saccharides to the raw material.
The sponge cake prepared by the methods exemplified above permits improving the texture to some extent. However, a sufficient improvement has not yet been achieved, and consumers have requested that the texture be further improved.
In any of the methods exemplified above, flour is used as the main raw material of the cake premix. Naturally, the raw material flour contains gluten, which is thermally denatured when heated by microwaves within a microwave oven, so as to form a mesh structure of the sponge texture of the cake. However, the mesh structure actually causes the cooked sponge cake to exhibit a hard gum-like texture, resulting in the failure to produce a light and soft voluminous feel.
Under the circumstances, it is considered to prepare a sponge cake premix using flour having a low gluten or protein content. In the case of using such a flour, it is certainly possible to eliminate or lower the hard gum-like texture of the cooked sponge cake. In this case, however, another difficulty is encountered. Specifically, the mesh structure of the sponge cake serves to hold the gas generated from the expanding agent so as to support the sponge skeleton of the cake. In the case of using the particular flour noted above, however, the mesh structure is not formed sufficiently, resulting in a marked reduction in the role of supporting the sponge skeleton of the cake. It follows that it is impossible to maintain the volume of the sponge cake immediately after baking, giving rise to a large bake shrinkage. As a result, another problem is generated.